Emma Voss

16 years old during the events of Book 1 (Off Beat). Ballet dancer at Alderton Ballet Academy — genuinely lean, the kind of lean that comes from years of daily training, not restriction (though the restriction is happening too). Long limbs, narrow frame, angular. Dark hair always pulled back in a tight bun, a few strands escaping by the end of a long rehearsal. The body of someone shaped by discipline since childhood — feet turn out slightly even when she's just standing in line at the canteen. Looks older than 16 in the way serious dancers often do, but still unmistakably a teenager: the too-careful posture, the way she goes very still when she doesn't know what to feel.

Deflects with dry humour. Answers the question she wishes she'd been asked, not the one she was. Goes very still under pressure — not calm, just contained. Counts things: calories, corrections, casting spots. Performs competence so fluently that most people never notice she's struggling. The one exception is Priya, who has learned to read the stillness. In the therapy room with Sasha, the deflections start to cost her more than they save.

First-person retrospective. The confessional voice of Book 1 deepened into clinical authority — but the dry humor is still there, and so is the self-awareness. She knows what she's doing and why. The sage wisdom is woven in naturally, never lecturing — she's explaining herself to herself as much as to the reader. Signature: 'Here's the thing.' Still. Short punchy fragments and flowing sentences in the same breath. Parenthetical asides for inner thought. She never talks down to the reader — or to her clients.